WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Wednesday nominated venture capitalist and former wireless and cable lobbyist Tom Wheeler to be the top media and telecommunications regulator.
If approved by the Senate, Wheeler would become chairman of the Federal Communications Commission at a time when the agency prepares for a major reshuffling of ownership of radio airwaves and tries to catch up to rapidly changing technology.
"For more than 30 years, Tom's been at the forefront of some of the very dramatic changes that we've seen in the way we communicate and how we live our lives," Obama said of Wheeler, who has advised his administration on telecom policy and helped raise large sums for his presidential campaigns.
"Tom knows this stuff inside and out."
Wheeler, who now chairs the FCC's Technology Advisory Council and invests in tech at Core Capital Partners, headed the National Cable Television Association in the 1980s. From 1992 to 2004 he was CEO of the wireless industry group CTIA.
"If anybody's wondering about Tom's qualifications, Tom is the only member of both the cable television and the wireless industry hall of fame," Obama said of Wheeler, who stood next to the president at the nomination announcement.
Wheeler would succeed current FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, who plans to leave for the Aspen Institute think tank in coming weeks. Commissioner Mignon Clyburn, a senior Democrat on the panel, will take over as acting chairwoman until the Senate confirms Genachowski's replacement.
(Reporting by Alina Selyukh; Editing by Xavier Briand)
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